Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
theatlantic.com
Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
1–10 of 94 posts
Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
#2I hate to be this dismissive, but I couldn’t find a single paragraph in that article that provided any kind of compelling analysis or insight into human behavior.
I’m less concerned about misinformation propagating through a platform vs why misinformation even works on someone. I don’t care if the whole country of Russia sat there and told you lies with fake accounts 24/7, I want to know why you believed any of it.
Anyways, is The Atlantic supposed to be a reputable website? This article isn’t even the fun kind of hot take, it’s the trite tacky type of hot take (oh, is the Social Dilemma out? Are we going to keep things thematic and piggy back off that?).
Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
#3I hate to be this dismissive, but I couldn’t find a single paragraph in that article that provided any kind of compelling analysis or insight into human behavior. I’m less concerned about misinformation propagating through a platform vs why misinformation even works on someone. I don’t care if the whole country of Russia sat there and told you lies with fake accounts 24/7, I want to know why you believed any of it. A…
Just knowing why people believe the things doesn't stop people from believing lies or the damage it can do to them and those around them.
Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
#4Wow. As much as I do agree with this, this is some hyperbolic writing. I've read so many articles just like this one, they show up on HN quite often it seems, and I've never seen one that had what seemed like a realistic fix to the problem. I don't think there is a fix really. All social media platforms will be full of bots/fakes that exist to spread garbage. All social media platforms will be full of real people doing the same. It also seems like the loudest people (and bots) are the most toxic and get the most engagement. It's people, all the way down, and there will always be a bunch of people doing the wrong thing. Those people will be highly incentivized and motivated, while the rest of us will just be looking for something to read.
(Also, maybe interesting, the author of this is the executive editor of The Atlantic, not just some reporter.)
Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
#5I hate to be this dismissive, but I couldn’t find a single paragraph in that article that provided any kind of compelling analysis or insight into human behavior. I’m less concerned about misinformation propagating through a platform vs why misinformation even works on someone. I don’t care if the whole country of Russia sat there and told you lies with fake accounts 24/7, I want to know why you believed any of it. A…
It is a social network hack: 1) broadcast misinformation wide and often; 2) some individuals lacking in critical thinking accept the misinformation as true and start repeating it; 3) as the misinformation propagates through those that do not verify, it begins to be noticed by those that might verify new information, but so many people in their sphere have adopted this information they accept the information on faith that their peers are like them and have verified the new information; 4) this process repeats until those that do verify are negated by those that refuse to accept that their peers and themselves could be wrong.
Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
#6[flagged]
Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
#7Wow. As much as I do agree with this, this is some hyperbolic writing. I've read so many articles just like this one, they show up on HN quite often it seems, and I've never seen one that had what seemed like a realistic fix to the problem. I don't think there is a fix really. All social media platforms will be full of bots/fakes that exist to spread garbage. All social media platforms will be full of real people doi…
> Those people will be highly incentivized
not if we don't incentivize them - we just need a social media platform to not be an advertisement platform
Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
#8Wow. As much as I do agree with this, this is some hyperbolic writing. I've read so many articles just like this one, they show up on HN quite often it seems, and I've never seen one that had what seemed like a realistic fix to the problem. I don't think there is a fix really. All social media platforms will be full of bots/fakes that exist to spread garbage. All social media platforms will be full of real people doi…
Limit public posts. One can engage with individuals directly all they want, but there is a limit on the number of public posts one can make, and they are scrutinized for misinformation before going public. This will drive the creation of "discussion/topic groups" in an effort to get around the public posting scrutiny, but placing a limit on the size of a discussion/topic group halts that effort.
Such changes will be required by law. FaceBook is a controversy engine, and as such they will fight tooth and nail to maintain as much controversy generation capability as they can, because that is what drives engagement there. It is certainly not friends sharing their days.
Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
#9Wow. As much as I do agree with this, this is some hyperbolic writing. I've read so many articles just like this one, they show up on HN quite often it seems, and I've never seen one that had what seemed like a realistic fix to the problem. I don't think there is a fix really. All social media platforms will be full of bots/fakes that exist to spread garbage. All social media platforms will be full of real people doi…
> Those people will be highly incentivized not if we don't incentivize them - we just need a social media platform to not be an advertisement platform
Again, this is just thinking about the problem incorrectly. You think people are vain, reactionary, signaling-obsessed, shallow and gossipy because Facebook put a fucking ad system on their website?
Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Those people will be highly incentivized not if we don't incentivize them - we just need a social media platform to not be an advertisement platform
Again, this is just thinking about the problem incorrectly. You think people are vain, reactionary, signaling-obsessed, shallow and gossipy because Facebook put a fucking ad system on their website?
No, but Facebook will deliberately "optimise for engagement", regardless of whether the engagement is positive or negative for the user or society, because ads.
Facebook wasn't the cesspit it is today when your news feed actually showed you your friends updates in chronological order.
Hell, it was better still even before the GD news feed even existed.